TRINITARIAN AND COSMOTHEANDRIC VISION

The Trinitarian and Cosmotheandric Vision: God-Man-Cosmos
The pages of this volume dare to speak of this Reality which we call “Mystery”.
The trinitarian vision of reality is not limited to the concept which it is usual to call Christian: it is much broader and more universal. With more or less clarity humankind has always been aware of a higher Mystery, transcendental to, or immanent in, Man.
If we heed how humanity has expressed its comprehension of itself and the cosmos, we may glimpse three major visions: the monist, the pluralistic (which, in the final analysis, is dualistic), and the a-dualist view.
From a metaphysical perspective, the three definitions correspond to the three main worldviews of human history.
Another a-dualist approach to reality is the cosmotheandric vision. This vision tells us that Reality is neither formed from a unique, indistinct block – be it divine, spiritual or material – nor from three or from a three-tiered world: the world of the Gods (or of Transcendence), the world of Men (or of Consciousness) and the physical world (or the world of Matter), as if it were a three-storey building. Reality is made up of three inter-related dimensions (the trinitarian perichôrêsis), so that not only does one not exist without the other, but all are intertwined within a relationship of inter-in-dependence.
After a first part dedicated to a general essay on Divinity and a second study focusing more particularly on the faces of God (Ch. 1 and 2), Man is presented as a trinitarian being according to the Greek and cosmic anthropological vision, and Man’s responsibility with regard to the cosmos is described (Ch. 3).
This is followed by a commentary on the issue of Christian Trinity which has seen numerous reworkings, as it forms the fulcrum of the author’s Christian vision. The living God is the trinitarian God – that is not the same as either the God of monotheism or polytheism, just as Christianity is not the same as its own doctrine (Ch. 4).
To recapitulate the issue, a broader vision is introduced, which has been called “the radical Trinity”, that is to say the cosmotheandric vision, first described in its general aspect and then under its specific form of spirituality (Ch. 5).

INDEX OF ORIGINAL TEXTS IN VOLUME VIII

“Deity” in The Encyclopedia of Religion (ed. M. Eliade), McMillan IV, New York 1987, pp. 264-276.

“Facies Deitatis: Los rostros de Dios”. The text was originally written in Spanish for an exhibition of religious paintings at the monastery of San Martiño Pinario, Santiago de Compostella (September-November 2000).

The Trinity. A primordial Human Experience. This text is the result of the revision of Trinità ed esperienza religiosa dell’uomo, Cittadella, Assisi 1989 (a translation of two works published in different epochs, the first in English: The Trinity and the Religious Experience of Man, in 1973, and the second in Spanish: La Trinidad y la experiencia religiosa, in 1989), confronted with the latest Castilian edition of 1998 revised by the author himself.

Man, a Triniterian Mystery. Original text Der Mensch, ein trinitarisches Mysterium die Verantwortung des Menschen für eine bewohnbare Welt im, in R. Panikkar, W. Strolz (ed), Christentum, Hinduismus und Buddhismus, Herder, Freiburg i.B. 1985, pp. 147-190. Translated by James MacDonald

The Cosmotheandric Experience. Original English version: The cosmotheandric experience. Emerging religious consciousness, Orbis, Maryknoll (NY) 1992, 1-77; revised with La Realtà cosmoteandrica. Dio-Uomo-Mondo, Parts I and III, Milano: Jaca Book, 2004. [Part II in Opera Omnia, Vol. XI.]